Her Phantom Christmas Special: Christmas Future
by GemNika
Summary: Gajeel knew there were plenty of horrible decisions he'd made in life, but this one choice could never be it. Not when she looked at him this way, smiled just like she used to. Not when he could hold her on Christmas. (Rated M for a reason) [Complete]


**A/N: There's a certain story that's been out for** _ **exactly**_ **two years now, and since a new chapter isn't ready for it I decided you guys should have a Christmas special instead.**

 _ **Her Phantom**_ **'s first chapter was posted on Christmas Eve in 2014, and now two years later, we're barely into the second arc. It makes me sad that it's not farther along, but… I think you'll like this.**

 **Also, even though it's super late... _Leoslady4ever_ , happy birthday! :D I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 _ **Her Phantom: Christmas Special  
Christmas Future**_

* * *

Gajeel still couldn't believe his eyes when he woke up to find her in his arms. It seemed like only yesterday that they'd been in Phantom Lord together, keeping their relationship a secret from everyone and just enjoying the time they had. Granted, they fought like all hell a good portion of the time, but he hadn't minded it all that much back then.

And now, with Lucy still sleeping, curled against his chest with his hair tangled around her fingers, he still didn't mind the way things had been before. He much preferred how things were right then though. And if he could have gone back in time, he knew in an instant that he would have cock-punched his past self and ripped that dumbass a new one for even _thinking_ of not listening to the blonde.

He took a deep breath filled with sugar and almonds with his nose nestled in her hair, his gaze shifting toward the frost-covered window on the far side of their bedroom.

 _Their bedroom_.

Even thinking it had him over the moon. It was just one of many things that they shared now, and he didn't even have the words to tell the woman in his arms just how much this second chance meant to him.

It had been rocky, at best, in the beginning. They'd had to start from scratch.

Because he wasn't the same asshole she'd fallen in love with, and he'd done so much to hurt her. To test the trust she'd put in him. Hell, just dealing with her spirits for the first week after they'd really reunited was enough to test any man's patience, but Gajeel knew he deserved that and a whole lot more than the threats from Virgo and Leo and Aquarius he'd gotten.

Part of him was still tempted to ask Aquarius to waterboard him for a bit, just so they could both feel like he'd really paid for what he did to Lucy.

His fingers threaded through her hair, danced along her scalp before skittering down to the knotted ends. Back up to start all over again. Her breathy sigh across his skin had him nearly shivering with contentment. God, he'd missed this.

Just holding her in bed. Being with her when no one else was around and watching. It wasn't like they really had to hide anything, and he didn't want to, but Gajeel knew Lucy understood his reservations, at least a little. They'd been private and secretive in Phantom, and even though they were surrounded by friends it was still hard to break that habit. Hell, Pantherlily gave him a hard time about not just kissing Lucy when he felt like it, for that very reason.

He was trying though. Gajeel wanted to be the type of man she was proud to have mated with. He wanted to show her and the rest of the world that he was the husband she deserved. And she deserved a whole lot more than he could ever hope to give her.

But he was trying, and that had to count for something. At least, the dragon in his head said it counted.

"You're all broody again," she mumbled while carefully stretching just enough to pop her back without her legs cramping up.

"I'm not," he whispered. "Just cuddlin'."

Lucy's eyes stayed closed and a soft smile curled her lips. "Gajeel, you think I don't know when you're thinking too much?"

"Not sure," he muttered. There was so much that they didn't really know about each other anymore. Sometimes he wondered if they'd jumped the gun a little too quickly when they got back together, with him just taking her home and marking her like he should have done from the start and then getting married only a month later. "But yer awake now…"

"I am," she said. Her eyes finally opened, and she instantly sought his lips in a tender caress, the same she gave him every morning.

Just feeling her lips again made him want to fucking cry. For so long, he'd thought she would never speak to him again, that he'd never see her face, her smile, or hear her laugh. The fact that he had somehow gotten her back still baffled him.

"We want breakfast," Lucy whispered against his lips.

Gajeel's hand glided down from her hair to her shoulders, then to the small of her back. Finally, to her slightly rounded belly. He didn't care if Lucy broke every bone in his body when it came time for her to give birth to their daughter. The little bundle of growing joy within her was a fucking miracle and he was more than thankful for this chance at a family with the blonde.

Especially since he now knew just how much she'd lost all those years ago when he'd nearly killed her.

"Whaddya thinkin' ya want?" he asked.

"Monkey bread." She gave a breathy sigh into the next kiss he pressed to her lips, one that grew into a quiet hum as his tongue teased them to part. His fingers brushed across the lifted hem of her nightgown, shifting it higher until they could push beneath and rub slow circles over her swollen belly.

"And to drink?" Gajeel grinned as his hand brushed across her hip, feeling the extra padding she'd already gotten from her pregnancy. He had a feeling, if she kept up with the sweets intake like she had been, there was going to be a bit more of her to love during the coming months. And while that had once been something that would have turned him away, with Lucy he couldn't get enough of the mere thought of it. Of her glowing like this because of the child _they_ had made.

"Almond milk." Her legs spread while she pulled Gajeel on top of her, deepening the kiss as he willingly came closer. He felt her smiling against his lips while he reached between them to circle his thumb around the iron piercing still in her navel.

And even though she'd just woken up, he could smell her arousal hanging thick in the air. Each breath was filled with it while his lips trailed down the line of her jaw and toward the center of her throat. Then down further to the mating mark that had blossomed in the center of her chest. Her fingers anchored against his scalp as his teeth surrounded one nipple, still hidden beneath her nightgown, then bit down just enough to have her taking a quivering breath.

"Gajeel," Lucy whimpered. "I-"

Whatever she'd been about to say was gone as soon as he bit down into the mating mark and pushed her panties to the side, quickly filling her with two fingers.

"Fuck!"

He groaned when her sex clamped down on his slow-moving digits. Just another thing to love about her being pregnant. She was just so damn ready for him - something he'd learned was _not_ the case for every woman, courtesy of their midwife's horror stories - and there was no way he was going to deny the shuddering blonde who was already clutching herself to him.

His free hand drifted along her side and he kissed his way up to her panting mouth once again. "Monkey bread and almond milk," he grinned. "What else can I give my sexy Mama Bunny?"

She bit at his lips, fighting not to shift herself and make him move faster, but still smiled. "Healthy?"

His grin darkened with mischief and his thumb pressed to the swollen bundle of nerves above her slick entrance. "You take good care of our princess," he chuckled. "And I'll take even better care of you."

Lucy's eyes flashed with understanding, and he could see her will to argue warring with her desire for more. His hand slowed, leaving her trying to arch into him and Gajeel withdrawing his fingers from her heat. He didn't move away completely though, still hovering over the blonde and looking right into her widened eyes as a strangled whimper crackled in her throat.

"No?" Gajeel whispered. "I guess-"

"Bananas," she said. Lucy reached down and pressed his hand against her glistening sex. "One banana and some celery?"

"And one egg." She cringed, and his eyes softened slightly. It still seemed she was getting queasy from them, even though her morning sickness was gone. "What if I put your egg on peanut butter toast?"

"With cinnamon?"

"Of course," he chuckled.

"Then fine, but no more foreplay. You're killin' me here, Black Steel." He could feel goosebumps rising on her flesh when a low growl burst from him. Suddenly it was all lips and teeth and desperately grasping hands removing their clothing just enough for him to feel her thicker thighs wrapping around his hips and her fingers lining him up at her entrance.

And once they were joined, the world around them went utterly still. There was nothing else except for the woman in his arms, whispering his name in a breathless plea for him to move faster. To take her harder than they both knew she could take in her current condition. The crimson sheets they were lying on faded into the background as he fell into the honey pools of her half-lidded eyes.

"Merry Christmas, Lucy," Gajeel rasped.

That same smile he loved appeared once again at the sound of her name passing his lips. "Merry Christmas, Gajeel," she whispered. Her fingers curved around his cheeks before sinking into his hair and yanking the tangled raven strands hard enough to make him snarl in warning. "Now quit being a bitch baby and fuck your Bunny."

"I'll show you a fuckin' bitch baby," he growled, pulling his hips back and sending the blonde closer to the headboard with each rough plunge into her soaking depths.

* * *

A gentle knock on the door drew Gajeel's attention from his reminiscing, and he looked over to find his wife of fifteen years and their teenage daughter, Tali, making their way into the bedroom with their arms full of wrapped presents.

"What're you two plannin'?" he muttered, drawing the blanket up to his chin and swiping at his nose with a tissue he didn't remember grabbing. A thick cough rattled in his chest, and he simply curled in on himself even more once he was done, using another tissue to spit the loosened mucus into.

"You're sick, Papa," Tali said while setting her load of presents on the floor at the foot of the bed. "So we're having Christmas with you instead of trying to make your lazy ass move to the couch."

"Gihi, fuck you, princess," he smirked. When he started coughing again, he felt Lucy come to sit beside him, her cool hand pressing against the inferno that was his forehead. "Bunny," he whined, "I'm dyin'."

"You're not dying," she giggled. "You're just sick because you and Lily trudged all the way through the snow last night."

"Didn't wanna miss Christmas with my girls…" He didn't even care that he was pouting by the time Pantherlily walked into the room with a tray of hot cocoa for all four of them and two small piles of metal for Gajeel and Tali to eat.

"We did swear to be home for Christmas," the black Exceed said. He sighed quietly as Tali pulled him into her lap as soon as she'd taken her seat where Lucy usually slept in the bed, easily pushing her waist-length blonde hair out of his face. "And there was no stopping Gajeel."

The elder Iron Slayer sniffled and shifted so Lucy could lean against the headboard with him lying between her legs and his head resting on her stomach.

He could still smell the iron dragon piercing her navel and - even though she hated when he pointed it out - absolutely loved the little bit of extra weight she hadn't been able to get rid of after having Tali fourteen years prior. Sure, he'd been head over heels for Lucy when her body was tight and toned, but now they were older and he had so much more appreciation for her in more than just how she looked.

Besides, when he saw the stretch marks she hated, all he could think about was just _why_ she had them. Because she'd been a fucking saint who carried their daughter and broke his jaw while giving birth.

"You still with us, Black Steel?" Lucy whispered as her fingers sifted through his hair.

"Mm-hmm," he muttered, nuzzling her stomach with a delirious smile. "I jus' really love you, Bunny."

"I love you too, Mr. Sniffles," she giggled.

"I wanna say you guys sicken me," Tali said with a tender smile, "But I can't. It's too cute."

"Open presents before they start cooing," Lily grinned. "If that starts, we'll never get away."

"Cuteness overload, for sure," Tali nodded.

"Bunny," Gajeel sniffed, "Make 'em stop teasin' me. I'm sick…"

"You get worse every year," she smiled. And he knew she wasn't lying. But that didn't matter to either of them, because Lucy was just as pathetically cuddly and needy when she got even the slightest sniffle. And she was sick a whole lot more often than him, that was for damn sure.

"Alright, alright," Tali groaned playfully. "I'll open a present."

Gajeel's crimson eyes slid open to watch his daughter pluck a present from the pile, and he found himself smiling just like he did every year when her eyes that matched his brightened with unrestrained joy at the sight of her gift.

"R-Really?" Tali whispered, staring in wonder at the three tickets in a small gift box. "You'll let me?"

"Lily and Rogue are _your_ chaperones," Lucy said with a nod. "You'll meet up with the other Slayer kids from Fairy Tail and-"

"I don't need details!"

Gajeel groaned when his daughter vaulted across the small space and wrapped her arms around them in a crushing, awkwardly positioned hug. "God… Fuck, stop… My fuckin' lungs!"

Tali drew back, her slightly pointed canines gleaming while she beamed down at her father. "You'll really let me go to Tenrou with them? No bullshit, I can go?!"

"Yes."

"This is the best gift ever!"

Gajeel sighed when she scrambled off the bed and rushed down the hall toward where they kept the household lacrima, no doubt already calling Natsu's son to tell him the news. That her parents had finally relented in their overprotectiveness and were willing to let her go on the Dragon Slayer training trip that Fairy Tail's Master Laxus was hosting on Tenrou Island.

" _Iggy! Iggy, you'll never believe it!"_

"So glad I'm not fuckin' goin'," Gajeel huffed. He still found himself smiling when Lucy's nails gently raked across his scalp.

"You know I won't mind if you do," she whispered, giving Lily a small nod to let him know that she was going to need some time alone with her mate. Once their dear friend was out of the room, her arms wound around his burning head and her thighs tightened on either side of his chest. "Really, Gajy. You can go with them."

"No way," he whispered. "The fact that she smells the way she does around Salamander's kid… I can't deal with that shit on an island and not…" He paused to sneeze and send his wife a small apology for using her body to cover his mouth and nose.

"And not just go all Phantom Gajeel on his scrawny Fire Slayer ass?" Lucy asked, grinning down at the exhausted ruby eyes glaring up at her. When he didn't say a word in response, and simply grabbed another tissue to blow his nose properly, he saw her gaze soften slightly. And he knew just what she was going to say before she even opened her mouth. "You know they forgave us for all of that mess."

"Yeah," he muttered. "But that Shrimp's son…"

"He shouldn't have to know the kind of pain you brought on her," Lucy nodded. "I get that, Gajeel. But you're older and wiser now. And you're not going to hurt him. We both know that."

His grip on the blonde tightened just enough for her to really feel him. And for Gajeel to reassure himself that this wasn't all some fucked up dream. That he'd really been able to get the blonde who completed his soul in every way, back into his life all those years ago.

"Bunny…"

"Yes?"

"If this is a dream, never wake me up, okay?"

"You know it's not a dream," she smiled down at his glistening forehead. "I'm still here with you, handsome."

"Promise, Bunny?"

"I promise, Black Steel," she whispered.

"Promise to spend every Christmas with me?"

And it wasn't until he heard the words from her that he finally relaxed once again. The same words that had been the beginning of everything between them, that set him at ease every single time he questioned why she was with him after how much he'd fucked things up between them in the beginning.

"Always, always," Lucy whispered.

Every Christmas that mattered, their past, present, and the many to come for them, Gajeel knew he would be with Lucy. Tali would one day grow up and leave home, spending the rest of her days in the arms of Igneel once they were mated (he could only assume, but Gajeel still hoped he was wrong about that), and eventually Pantherlily would get over himself and let Shagotte know he'd been holding quite the candle for her for years.

One day, it would only be himself and Lucy, and even then, every single day that he could wake up with the blonde Celestial mage in his arms would be the best day of his life.

Really, there wasn't a better Christmas present than that.

 _ **.The End.**_


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